ANOTHER WASTE OF TAXPAYER DOLLARS: CATHEDRAL CITY’S ELECTION-YEAR EFFORT TO SHUT DOWN A MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARY

Summary: Cash-strapped Cathedral City should not be spending scores/hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars trying to shut down a medical marijuana dispensary.  Our city does not need to be, and should not be, carrying water on this issue for Washington or Sacramento.  The federal government’s reefer madness over medical marijuana is unsupported by any competent evidence, and the current effort to shut down the Grass Hopper Collective looks like an election-year effort to position an increasingly unpopular mayor, her do-nothing incumbent council ally, and the former police chief running with them as a slate as the so-called law enforcement candidates in this race.  It certainly seems that compassion for the sick and dying takes second place to seeking political power at any cost.

In a cash-strapped city which has had to ask its employees for repeated givebacks, spending scores or even hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money (in an election year, surprise, surprise) to try to shut down a marijuana dispensary makes no sense.

Of course, little about the reefer madness of our so-called national war on drugs makes a lot of sense.  I remember how hard-core federal Drug Warriors used to threaten local officials with prosecution for voting the “wrong” way on medical marijuana dispensaries.  Fortunately, somebody in the Department of Justice reminded his or her colleagues that casting a vote is a form of petition for redress, and thus enjoys First Amendment protection.

I also remember the way in which Cathedral City resources were lavishly squandered on prior efforts to drive the so-called demon weed out of our fair city.

But, like the Bourbons of the ancien régime, Cathedral City’s mayor, her staunchest ally on the council, and the former police chief running with them on a slate, have learned nothing and forgotten nothing; Cathedral City is once again pouring money into litigation we do not need and cannot afford.  If there is such a pressing need to get rid of the Grass Hopper Collective, then why has the federal government not undertaken to spend its own money to protect us against the deadly threat of a medical marijuana dispensary in our midst?  Alternatively, if the State of California wants us to get rid of this dispensary, why have they not stepped up with your checkbook?

The simple answer, of course, is that Washington and Sacramento are perfectly happy to let us go broke trying to enforce a solution in search of a nonexistent problem.  The other answer is that we are in an election year, and the mayor and her slate want to be able to position themselves as staunch defenders of “law and order.”

Yet the law itself is uncertain, and the case against medical marijuana, particularly for those living with such diseases as cancer and AIDS, is unpersuasive.

Still, the hard-line Drug Warriors who have invested their professional careers in scaring the bejeesus out of us with their overwrought claims don’t intend to back down anytime soon, notwithstanding the thorough debunking of such overhyped programs as DARE, which turned out to be a waste of time, talent, and treasure.

Indeed, I recall how, during the early years of the last decade, when I was serving on CVAG’s Public Safety Committee, law enforcement representatives would, from time to time, “explain” to me in condescending tones how marijuana was a so-called gateway drug with no possible beneficial use.

When I would ask them for evidence to support their claim, they would offer, in effect, the tautological and circular argument that marijuana was a gateway drug because they said ex cathedra that it was a gateway drug, and that I should accept it simpliciter from them: “it is because we say it is.”

When I reminded them that numerous peer-reviewed studies not only contradicted their position, but also showed that marijuana could have genuine palliative effects on persons suffering from chronic, long-term illnesses such as cancer or HIV wasting syndrome, they would poo-poo the studies, either on an ad hominem basis ("oh, you know the professor who did that study was a liberal who voted for Al Gore") or because (OMG! WTF!) the studies might have come from (gasp!) Europe or the UK, and we certainly couldn’t trust those European cheese eating surrender monkeys.

When I pressed further, reminding them that millions of Americans have at some time or another smoked marijuana and gone on to become law-abiding pillars of society, they hemmed and hawed.

When I reminded them that nicotine is a far more addictive substance than tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and asked them whether any of them were tobacco smokers, they hemmed and hawed even further.

When I reminded them further of the high statistical likelihood that some of them had themselves probably gotten high in their younger years, the result was usually stony silence, followed by a strategically timed phone call they just had to leave the committee room to take.

So much for any defensible argument that we should be prosecuting marijuana users and warehousing them in our already overcrowded prison-industrial complex.

My former Council colleague, Greg Pettis, agrees that this latest effort is a waste of time and money.  The taxpayers of Cathedral City deserve better than to have their dollars squandered on litigation we cannot afford and do not need.  The taxpayers of Cathedral city deserve better than a mayor, a council member, and a council wannabe who turn their backs on some of the sickest in our community, sufferers of cancer and AIDS, simply to hold on to power that they have never used effectively, and should no longer be trusted to wield.

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Paul S. Marchand is an attorney who lives and works in Cathedral City, where he served two terms on the city Council, and is running to return to the council after a two-year hiatus.  He opposed earlier efforts to shut down medical marijuana dispensaries, and --- having worked with AIDS patients in prior years --- has seen the legitimate palliative effects of medical marijuana.  The views expressed herein are his own, and are not necessarily those of any organization or agency with which he may be associated.

MARCHAND ENDORSED BY THE GAY AND LESBIAN VICTORY FUND

CATHEDRAL CITY –- September 25, 2012.  Paul Marchand has been endorsed for City Council in Cathedral City by the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, his campaign announced today.

The Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund works to elect LGBT leaders to public office.  Since 1991, the Victory Fund has helped thousands of openly LGBT candidates win election to local, state and federal offices.

“It’s a great honor to have received the endorsement of one of the premier LGBT political advocacy organizations in the nation,” Marchand said.  “At a time when more and more Americans from all walks of life are standing up for full equality for all of America’s people, this endorsement means a great deal.”